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Yugi
Dark Magician
Dark Magician (Black Magician, ブラック・マジシャン, Burakku Majishan)
Yugi/Dark Yugi's ace monster, its design inspired an entire archetype that continues to receive support to this day. It, or some variation of it, features prominently in pretty much every major Duel Monsters battle the King of Games has, usually appearing at the last turn to deal the final blow.
The card is based on the ka form of Mahad, a magician from Pharaoh Atem's court who gave his life to become the Dark Magician and fight Thief King Bakura with new strength, who in turn had the Illusion Magician monster.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, he wore a dark blue outfit and was blond with pale skin. In the anime, he has a purple outfit and purple hair. In the card game, several of his artworks show him with teal skin and blonde hair, whereas in Dark Side of Dimensions he's drawn with white hair and light blue skin.
- In-universe, the Shadow RPG version of the Dark Magician, which was the real Dark Magician (Priest Mahado), was tanned.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: A fair number of depictions give him teal skin.
- Art Evolution: Over the course of the manga his design becomes noticeably more attractive, from his pretty-boy features to his costume revealing more and more of his muscular build.
- Badass Boast: His card description: "The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense."
- Badass Teacher: As Mahado, towards Mana a.k.a. the human summoner of the Dark Magician Girl.
- Bash Brothers: He and Jonouchi's Flame Swordsman play this role throughout Duelist Kingdom, and reprise it during the Virtual Nightmare arc.
- Color Motif: Purple, but only in the anime.
- Evil Twin: Has one in Arkana's/Pandora's version of the Dark Magician, who has a different, much more villainous design. See here
◊ for a direct comparison. - Finger Wag: Sometimes does this after pulling off his "Mystic Box" trick.
- Freudian Trio: The Ego to Dark Magician Girl's Id, and Magician of Black Chaos' Superego.
- Fusion Dance: With Flame Swordsman (Dark Flare Knight), Buster Blader (Dark Paladin), Time Wizard (Dark Sage), and the Eye of Timaeus (Amulet Dragon and possibly an unreleased Fusion). In-series, he is the result of the fusion of the spirits of Mahad and his monster ka, the Magus of Illusions.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Doesn't even appear during Yugi and Kaiba's first duel in the manga and the TOEI adaptation, with the winning blow going to the Summoned Skull instead.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Exact hair color differs depending on the card art, including white.
- Magic Knight: Some of his "evolved" forms, Dark Paladin, Dark Flare Knight and Dark Magician Knight, are Exactly What They Say On The Card.
- Magic Staff: Wields a long green and purple staff through which he casts his spells.
- Merlin and Nimue: He is the Dark Magician Girl's teacher/mentor, while she is the student/apprentice.
- Mr. Fanservice: Courtesy of Art Evolution giving him a more toned build and emphasizing his Bishōnen features. Looking good in what appears to be black leather doesn't hurt either.
- Old Master: His Dark Sage form seen in the anime adaptation.
- Perpetual Frowner: Seems to be a trademark of Dark Yugi's cards.
- In the manga, he (the card) smiles quite a bit, most notably when Manga Dark Yugi does his cocky smirks.
- Pretty Boy: Let's just say that he has as many fangirls as his protégé down there has fanboys. His original artworks in particular gave him a rather slender figure to match his slight facial features.
- Purple Is the New Black: The Black Magician was made dark blue and purple rather than black, because an all-black costume doesn't work very well for black and white manga pages. Some of his alternate forms as well as his alternate artwork cards may darken his armor to be closer to black.
- Series Mascot: Essentially one of the faces of the card game, alongside Blue-Eyes White Dragon, due to his status as the ace card of the first main protagonist.
- Signature Mon: Yami Yugi has quite a few iconic cards, but Dark Magician is the most iconic of them all.
- The Stoic: Dark Magician does occasionally emote during duels, but his expression always starts out as this upon first summon.
- Stage Magician: Many of his support cards are based on traditional magician props, such as Thousands Knives, Mystic Box, and Magical Hats.
- Summon Magic: His Shadow RPG counterpart requires a certain amount of Ba to be summoned.
- Sword and Sorcerer: Often the "Sorcery" half, with Yugi's Buster Blader or Jonouchi's Flame Swordsman providing the "Sword".
- Undying Loyalty: As Mahado, he is very much loyal to Pharaoh Atem. In fact, the very reason Mahado willingly became the "Dark Magician" in the past is so he can be his eternal servant. Also a literal application of the trope name, as a last ditch effort to defeat Thief King Bakura, he did so by allowing his body to be killed, only for his spirit to fuse with that of his own spirit monster, the Magus of Illusions, live on in the form of the Dark Magician.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's not terribly powerful at 2500 ATK and lacks an effect, but to make up for this, he has quite a lot of support cards. In fact, in the real-life card game, Dark Magician has quite possibly the greatest number of dedicated support cards of any monster, to the point where you can easily build a deck where every single card mentions the name "Dark Magician."
Dark Magician Girl
Dark Magician Girl (Black Magician Girl ブラック・マジシャン・ガール Burakku Majishan Gaaru)
A female counterpart to the Dark Magician, she's not as powerful but is just as key a part of Yugi/Dark Yugi's deck. Her card is based on Mana, a childhood friend of Pharaoh Atem and Mahado's Cute Witch apprentice, and serves as one of the game pieces during Dark Yugi's battle against Dark Bakura during the Shadow RPG.
As a Duel Monsters card, she gains 300 ATK points for every Dark Magician in the Graveyard. In the anime, she's also a favorite of Téa Gardner and serves as her Deck Master.
- Action Girl: One of the most prominent female monsters in the franchise.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, there is an in-universe example of this: the original Monster Spirit version of Dark Magician Girl in the Millennium World arc had tanned skin and the pentagram on her chest was replaced with the Eye of Anubis. The anime adaptation gets this wrong and uses her Duel Monsters design.
- Adaptation Personality Change: The anime makes her a cuter and clumsier character, while she is more of the sexy and serious type in the manga.
- Ascended Extra: In the anime, she became a prominent character in the DOMA arc, appearing in spirit form before other Duel Monsters in Season 5. Also became the subject of a Running Gag in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where Sho/Syrus has a crush on her and she even appears in the flesh to duel Judai.
- Badass Adorable: She's adorable as hell, but still kicks ass.
- Black Magician Girl: Like her aforementioned master, she's the Trope Namer for this.
- Blush Sticker: Arguably, her charm isn't complete without these, permanently under her eyes.
- Bowdlerise: A frequent victim of it. When one of the most famous characters in both the anime/manga and real-life card game walks around in a short skirt and a top cut low on her large breasts, sooner or later censorship will kick in. She is given the Digital Bikini treatment as needed and has her bust size reduced (sometimes◊ drastically◊)note in all of her Western appearances as dictated by 4Kids.
- Breakout Character: She became one of Dark Yugi's key cards, and is more iconic across the franchise than the intended icon (Dark Magician) himself. She has several alternate card artworks and Expies, makes an appearance in every series and spin-off in some fashion, and is even a playable character in some of the video games.
- Cargo Ship Tease: In-universe, between her and Atem. Given that she was the Ka spirit of Mana, Atem's childhood friend, and the two of them got Ship Tease of their own, It Makes Sense in Context.
- Also gets this with Sho in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where a Running Gag in early seasons shows his crush on her.
- Cool Big Sis: Shows some shades of this towards Anzu during one of the anime's filler arcs.
- Cute Witch: Borders on Hot Witch, depending on how blatant the Fanservice is.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A real stretch on the "Black/Dark" moniker, her outfit is bright blue and pink, and she's bubbly and sweet.
- Demonic Possession: In the Battle City duel between Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura, Dark Bakura uses a card to possess her and force her to attack Dark Yugi. It's more heart-breaking when you see that she is crying as she's attacking him.
- Distaff Counterpart: As the name indicates, she's a female counterpart of the Dark Magician. This carries over to their Expies as well: Dark Magician has numerous variants and counterparts of his own, and almost every one of them receives a female counterpart of their own that usually is based on the Dark Magician Girl; Miracle Flipper and Card Ejector, Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Girl, Ebon Illusion Magician and Apprentice Illusion Magician, etc.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In the 2nd opening of the anime ("Shuffle!"), she briefly appears alongside the Dark Magician, a number of episodes before her official anime introduction. Before that, there was no prior indication that she existed besides reading the manga.
- Fanservice Pack:
- In her initial appearances in the anime she wasn't very voluptuous in the figure, and was decisively more "cute" than "sexy." Later episodes increased her bust size, made her body more curvaceous, tweaked her facial design, and characters in-universe began to comment on how hot she is. Just compare how she looked in Season 2◊ to how she looked in Season 4. Additionally, in her early appearances she was almost as stoic and serious as the Dark Magician (almost, anyway), but later was depicted as more energetic and playful, even blowing a kiss to Leon when he's in awe of seeing her.
- This also carries over to her card art; her initial art only showed her upper torso just looking out at the player, but now she's almost universally depicted full-body in provocative poses. Her profile pic higher up is a prime example, with her holding her staff out from between her legs and prominently showing off her legs. The art was actually considered so risqué that it wasn't released in the English TCG for over ten years.Explanation
- In her initial appearances in the anime she wasn't very voluptuous in the figure, and was decisively more "cute" than "sexy." Later episodes increased her bust size, made her body more curvaceous, tweaked her facial design, and characters in-universe began to comment on how hot she is. Just compare how she looked in Season 2
- Freudian Trio: The Id to Dark Magician's Ego, and Magician of Dark Chaos' Superego.
- Genki Girl: Her human summoner Mana who is directly linked to the ka version of the Dark Magician Girl; the card's Solid Vision hologram sometimes shows indications of this, especially if Dark Magician is also on the field.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has long, flowing blonde hair and is one of the hero's trump cards.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: There's no way that top can stay on without some magic of a different sort.
- Merlin and Nimue:
- With the Dark Magician, in both their card and Ancient Egyptian Ka forms. They are rather closer in age than most, with there being only about a 10-year age difference. Note that the Dark Magician Girl becomes more powerful if a Dark Magician is in either player's graveyard. Mana, the channeler of the Dark Magician Girl, became stronger on her own to avenge Mahado, the priest who eventually became the Dark Magician ka.
- Another link between the two is the Spell Card "The Sage's Stone" which allows the player to summon Dark Magician if he controls Dark Magician Girl. There's also another card "Bond Between Teacher and Student" that does the exact opposite, and then allows you to add one of four specific cards to your hand, two of which only activate when both Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl are together on the field.
- Ms. Fanservice: The iconic one for the franchise; a blue (or green in some medias)-eyed blonde with big boobs, long legs, and a trim figure, clad in an extremely revealing outfit. There's been many attractive females in the franchise, both as characters and as cards, but none of them have come close to her popularity. Even in-universe, she has a number of admirers.
- Perpetual Smiler: Her card art depicts her as always smiling.
- Pink Means Feminine: Crossed with True Blue Femininity with her outfit, which is blue with pink frills. Her attacks are also pink.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Implied, since she gets an attack boost for every Dark Magician or Magician of Black Chaos in the graveyard.
- Ship Tease: In the past, her channeler Cute Witch Mana with Atem. Her introduction in the anime has her jumping out of a vase and glomping him happily, saying she missed him even though Mahado says it has only been one day since she last saw him.
- To some extent, with Mahado as well. This also extends to Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.
- Student–Master Team: She and the Dark Magician, which mirrors Mana and Mahado.
- Summon Magic: Her Shadow RPG version requires Mana's Ba and Heka to be summoned and channeled.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Do not mess with or hurt Dark Yugi/Pharaoh Atem or the Dark Magician/Priest Mahado, whether she's the Dark Magician Girl or Mana.
Magician Of Black Chaos
Magician Of Black Chaos (Magician of Black Chaos マジシャン・オブ・ブラックカオス Majishan Obu Burakku Kaosu)
The Dark Magician transformed by the power of chaos, he first appears in the latter's Shadow Game with Pegasus, where he served as Dark Yugi's trump card in the original manga and its adaptation. He also puts in an appearance in the anime's Virtual World arc, where he joins Dark Yugi's other Dark Magicians in turning the duel against Noah Kaiba. In GX, a "retrained" variant, the Dark Magician of Chaos, appears in Yugi's deck when it goes on tour.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Probably the best example in Dark Yugi's deck. Unlike the other members of the Magicians, he's truly sinister looking, has a definitely nasty-vibe, is called Magician of Black Chaos, and serves as one of The Hero's trump cards.
- The Dreaded: When Dark Yugi summons it, Pegasus' reaction is "Not him! Not now!"
- Early-Bird Cameo: In the anime, a Magician of Black Chaos is shown in the first Shadow Game against Pegasus while Pegasus is giving a monologue about the origin of Duel Monsters, squaring off against a Thousand-Eyes Restrict. The exact-same match-up takes place in Dark Yugi and Pegasus' final duel in Duelist Kingdom.
- Evil Sorcerer: Unlike the more neutral-looking Black Magician and the utterly effervescent Black Magician Girl, he definitely gives off this vibe. But again, actually on the good side.
- Magic Staff: As with the normal Dark Magician, it wields a staff to channel its spells.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Black Chaos" is not friendly-sounding at all.
- Perpetual Frowner: Much like Dark Magician before him, his expression rarely changes from this, and even less so than his predecessors, whether in battle or when being destroyed.
- The Stoic: Compared to Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl whose expressions occasionally change (esp. the latter), Magician of Black Chaos remains stone-faced in all but a few rare instances. And even when he does emote, only his eyes tend to shift.
- Summon Magic: Requires the Black Chaos Ritual to appear.
Kuriboh
Kuriboh (Kuriboh クリボー Kuribō)
Every series has a Kuriboh. GX has Winged Kuriboh owned by Judai, 5D's has Kuribon owned by Ruka, ZEXAL has Kurivolt and Rainbow Kuriboh owned by Yuma, as well as Kite's Kuriphoton, and VRAINS has Linkuriboh, owned by Yusaku and Linguriboh owned by Ai. The 5D's manga also has Junkuriboh, used by Yusei, while the ARC-V manga has Performapal Kuriborder, used by Yuya.
- Action Bomb: The original Kuriboh explodes on contact with enemies.
- Cherry Tapping: When there's an opening, Yugi will use it to attack his opponent's life points directly because every little bit helps.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The original Kuriboh is a DARK-Attribute Fiend-Type, but is benevolent.
- Fusion Dance: Yugi brings out the "Five Kuriboh Brothers," which can merge into various other forms. We only see Kuribandit and Kuribabylon, however.
- Killer Rabbit: The one time Yugi actually uses it to attack - during the Virtual World Filler Arc - it damn near gnaws Noah's arm off (even if by game mechanics it only does 300 damage). The 4Kids-original Pyramid of Light also plays with this, putting it among the monsters summoned when Yugi first completed the Millennium Puzzle - and having it try to eat him.
- Lethal Joke Character: Despite looking harmless, they have some dangerous tricks up their sleeves that let their owners turn the tide.
- Light Is Good: Aside from the original Kuriboh and its powered-up forms, the Kuribohs are all Light-attribute.
- Out-of-Turn Interaction: The central function of the archetype is to block off an opponent's attack on their turn, often times by activating their effects directly from the hand, and save their owner from certain defeat.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Invoked and exaggerated for laughs. In Yugi and Kaiba's duel against a pair of Rare Hunters, Kuriboh can only stare in awe at Obelisk's overwhelming power.
- Pie-Eyed: The style of its pupils. Unusually, they're also colored rather than black.
- Pokémon Speak: Most of them tend to only say "kuri", at least in the original Japanese version. Downplayed in the English dub, where most, but not all, of these cries are replaced by a vague, unintelligible humming noise.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Kuribohs are some of the most adorable things you'll ever see in the series.
- Series Mascot: Variant. While no one Kuriboh is this, the family as a whole functions as the trope since almost every spin-off has a Kuriboh somewhere in the cast.
- Stone Wall: One of the most famous uses of Kuriboh is to multiply them into a massive, defensive army. Even on its own, Kuriboh can stop any monster attack dead in its tracks.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Kuribon, used by a female duelist instead of a male (Luna/Ruka), has eyelashes and a red bow on its tail.
- Theme Naming: All their names begin with "Kuri."
- Underestimating Badassery: Yugi's opponents almost invariably laugh when he summons Kuriboh, due to its pathetic stats. Then Yugi pulls off one of his famous combos with it and the laughter stops.
- Zerg Rush: Courtesy of the "Multiply" card. Sure, Kuriboh may be weak, but when Yugi forms a wall of dozens of them that replicate faster than they can be destroyed...
Black Luster Soldier
Black Luster Soldier (Chaos Soldier カオス・ソルジャー Kaosu Sorujā)
Yugi & Dark Yugi's answer to the likes of the Blue-Eyes, Black Luster Soldier is an extremely powerful dark knight, clad in black armor, and responding only to the Black Luster Ritual, which had never been completed before Dark Yugi did so. With stats of 3000/2500, Black Luster Soldier is easily Dark Yugi's strongest card during the early part of the series. It can combine with the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to achieve even greater power as Dragon Master Knight.
- Black Knight: Clad head to toe in black and gold armor.
- Cool Helmet: Wears a knight's helmet with a long red plumage (which might actually be his hair; it's not entirely clear).
- Dark Is Not Evil: He's basically the warrior counterpart to the Magician of Black Chaos — a Black Knight with a cold expression and an ominous sounding name, but he's ultimately one of the good guys. Oddly enough, he's an Earth-attribute monster.
- Dragon Rider: In a few instances he fused with Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, becoming one of the most Badass dragon riders in the history of the game (for the second time).
- Evil Redhead: Has the look, though see Dark Is Not Evil above.
- Fusion Dance: Can fuse with the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to become Dragon Master Knight (5000/5000), who gains power for every dragon on the field.
- Knightly Sword and Shield: Black Knight with a Sinister Scimitar and a shield.
- Perpetual Frowner: Is never shown smiling in any appearance.
- Power Equals Rarity: When Dark Yugi summoned him in his duel with Mai, it was the first time the card had ever been successfully summoned. That's how rare it was.
- Summon Magic: Comes only in response to the Black Luster Ritual.
- Super-Soldier: Of the magical variety.
- Took a Level in Badass: Believe it or not, that's actually Gaia the Fierce Knight empowered by chaos.
Celtic Guardian
Celtic Guardian (Elf Swordsman エルフの剣士 Erufu no Kenshi)
A mid-tier card and one of the few non-Dark Magician derivatives to see extensive screen time in the manga/anime.
- A Day in the Limelight: In a sense, the Yugi-Kaiba duel on Duelist Kingdom was this for him. Instead of dying a turn after he's summoned, he gets the honor of beheading the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (which was by this time half-dead from Yugi's Mammoth Graveyard-fusion trick, but still).
- Barbarian Hero: His whole motif is that of an Elven Celtic Barbarian.
- Our Elves Are Different: Celtic Guardian is an Elven warrior, and was even referred to as "Elf Swordsman" in his first anime appearance (and it's its Japanese name).
- The Worf Effect: Celtic Guardian tends to be sent out first to gauge an opponent's strategy, and is usually destroyed first as a result. Defied in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters
Exodia the Forbidden One
Exodia the Forbidden One (Sealed Exodia 封印されしエクゾディア Fūinsareshi Ekuzodia)
Exodia, OBLITERATE!!!
A set of five cards that previously belong to Sugoroku Mutou, Yugi's grandfather. This was Dark Yugi's trump card during his duel with Seto Kaiba during Death-T, and its equivalent in the second-series anime. An ancient lord bound away, Exodia is said to have power rivaling that of the Egyptian Gods and destroyed a hundred armies in one night. In-game, the player who contains the five pieces of Exodia in their hand at one time can declare an instant victory, regardless of any other factors.
It has a few "alternate" forms —
Exodia Necross, Exodia resurrected from the grave. He can be summoned in this form using the Contract of the Forbidden One: all 5 of his pieces must be in the Graveyard and his Necross form must be in the player's hand. In this form, he is completely invulnerable as long as all his pieces are in the Graveyard, but he is instantly destroyed if even 1 piece is returned to the player's hand or summoned. He also gets stronger as the game goes on, gaining 500 ATK every turn;
Exodius The Ultimate Forbidden Lord, Exodia's original form before being sealed away. He can be summoned with the Ultimate Ritual of the Forbidden Lord: requiring all 5 of his pieces be in a combination of the player's hand / Graveyard. Like his Necross form, he is nearly invulnerable, except in this form he can be defeated in a battle (although good luck with that!) because every time he attacks, he gets 1000 ATK for every one of his pieces that are in the Graveyard, as well as putting another piece in the Graveyard to further boost his power. Once all 5 of his pieces are in the Graveyard, his full power is restored and the player wins.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Exodia's a giant gigas.
- Chained by Fashion: Exodia's completed form has broken cuffs on its ankles and wrists, from when it was sealed.
- Decoy Protagonist: The intro of the first season suggested Exodia would be as major an element of Yugi's deck as the likes of Dark Magician, Celtic Guardian, and so on. As he would be a major Deus ex Machina and Story-Breaker Power, however, his cards were quickly disposed of when Weevil threw them off the boat on the way to Duelist Kingdom.
- Finishing Move: Hellfire's Rage! EXODO FLAME! (Exodia! Obliterate! in the dub.)
- Godzilla Threshold: During the Shadow RPG, Siamun Muran summons his guardian Ka Exodia to fight Zorc Necrophades, but as Exodia takes its power from a human, it can only fight as long as the summoner and is defeated once his or her Ba gauge runs out. Since he's an old man, this ends up as the only time where Exodia is outright defeated.
- MacGuffin: During the manga and first anime's Death-T arc. And the second series first episode.
- Noodle Incident: It's never explicitly stated what Exodia did that warranted him being chained up, although Shimon mentions that it had to do with his "incredible strength".
- Non-Standard Game Over: So much so that, for a while, it was the only monster named in the official rules - its effect was that unique.
- Power Equals Rarity: The cards are so rare that few own a complete set. This continued in the real world where all five pieces were some of the rarest cards of the first ever set.
- Set Bonus: Individually? Worthless. Together? Instant win.
- Summon Magic: He's a powerful summon of Siamun Muran during the Shadow RPG, who unfortunately experiences The Worf Effect soon after.
- Too Powerful to Live: Yugi's Exodia cards were swiftly thrown overboard by Weevil, ensuring that it can't be used as an answer for just about everything in the series.
- The Undead: Not Exodia itself, but Exodia Necross, which can only be summoned if all of the pieces are in the Graveyard, is definitely an example of this. Not in monster type though, as it is a Spellcaster, just like the monster's component body parts. A clue to it being undead is it's DEF stat, which is 0 like all other Zombie-Counterpart monsters.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: To an extent. While the pieces of Exodia have pathetic stats and the idea is to combine all five, they are still individual monster cards and can be used as such, say for battling—just don't expect them to find much they can kill. That said, their low stats make them easy to tutor via Sangan, and because the limbs are all classified as Normal Monsters, they can be retrieved from the grave via Dark Factory of Mass Production and Backup Soldier.
- Worf Had the Flu: In the final arc, Zorc Necrophades defeats him, albeit with difficulty to hype up Horakhty, who shows up a few chapters/episodes later. Exodia, however, was bound to an elderly man with a bad heart at the time, and it's implied things may very well have gone differently had that not been the case.
Seto Kaiba
Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Blue-Eyes White Dragon (Blue-Eyes White Dragon 青眼の白龍 Burūaizu Howaito Doragon)
The embodiment of both my pride and my soul, my loyal servant! Come forth! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
Seto Kaiba's favorite monster and the strongest normal monster in the game, it's so rare that he owns the only three that were ever found in the world (he tore up the fourth one that belonged to Yugi's grandfather). Due to its attack strength of 3000, in-universe it's considered one of the strongest cards in the game, and can become even stronger when the three dragons fuse to form Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
During the Shadow RPG, it's revealed that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was the Ka of Kisara, a girl Priest Seto was devoted to in Ancient Egypt. Priest Akhenaden killed her, which unleashed the Blue-Eyes in her soul. Seto's feelings for Kisara are one reason why Kaiba is so devoted to the Blue-Eyes in the modern world.
- Ambiguous Gender: Being made of the life energy (or Ba in the manga) of Kisara, one can make an argument that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (and by extension, all of its forms) is female. Not really helping that some of its alternate forms, namely Deep-Eyes White Dragon and especially Blue-Eyes Abyss Dragon, have a slender and feminine-looking physique.
- Arch-Enemy: To the Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, although it is more of the former’s arch-enemy than it is to the latter.
- Breath Weapon: Usually of the Shock and Awe or Holy Hand Grenade variety, depending on which variation you're asking about.
- The Dragon: To Kaiba while he was the Big Bad of the Death-T arc, literally and figuratively. Anyone who wants to have a chance at beating Kaiba is going to have to deal with his Blue-Eyes sooner or later.
- Destructive Saviour: See Light Is Good below as for why you shouldn't get near it.
- Dragon Rider: Paladin of White Dragon and Dragon Master Knight.
- Finishing Move: It's usually the Blue-Eyes or its Ultimate form who clinches the match for Kaiba. "Burst Stream of Destruction/White Lightning!"
- Fusion Dance: Fusing three regular Blue-Eyes yields the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon note . Fusing that with Dark Luster Soldier yields Dragon Master Knight, the strongest monster available in terms of brute strength.
- Light 'em Up: Attacks with massive bright blasts of energy.
- Light Is Good/Light Is Not Good: Benevolent, but highly aggressive and destructive and is used prominently by the series Anti-Hero. Not to mention, she has very bad breath.
- Meaningful Name: Well, it's actually a more silver-blue color than white in the anime, but you get the idea.
- Multiple Head Case: The three headed fusions Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and the twin-headed Twin Burst Dragon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Or in this case, just plain badass.
- Power Equals Rarity: Only four known copies exist, given the card's supreme power amongst monsters with no adverse effects or summoning conditions, in order to keep the card from being too widely used and dominating the game. Given that Seto Kaiba acquired 3 of the 4 copies for his own deck as part of his beatdown strategy, while his opponents have no other easily summon-able cards to rival it out of the box, yeah, that worked well. Averted in Real Life, where everyone has at least a copy of her.
- The Rival: Much like Kaiba's rivalry with Yugi, Blue-Eyes is a rival with Dark Magician, Shadi even saying as much when he entered the Pharaoh's mind.
- Rule of Three: After Kaiba was done with Grandpa Mutou, there were only three Blue-Eyes left in the world. Guess who owns them all.
- Series Mascot: One of the most recognizable cards in the game alongside Dark Magician.
- Signature Mon: Seto Kaiba's favorite monster, and the centerpiece of his strategy.
- Strong and Skilled: The Blue Eyes White Dragon is a powerful monster with 3000 Attack points and, while has no special ability, there are several combinations that, including fusion, that make it stronger.
- Super-Speed: In the Virtual World Filler Arc, Kaiba's duel against Leicter/Daimon reveals that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is fast enough to fly into orbit in just a few seconds.
- Toon: Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon. Kaiba hates this mockery of his signature monster with a passion.
- Undying Loyalty: It's hinted that the Blue-Eyes is extremely loyal to Kaiba, with Kaiba even referring to it as his most faithful servant and embodiment of his pride. This obviously goes back to ancient times involving Kaiba's past life.
- Unknown Rival: Blue-Eyes has a supposed rivalry with Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but its competition with Dark Magician is more prominent.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Kaiba and the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon pull one of these on Zorc Necrophades in the anime, slowing his advance long enough for Pharaoh Atem to learn his true name and bring the Egyptian Gods back into action.
Joey Wheeler
Red-Eyes Black Dragon
Red-Eyes Black Dragon (Red-Eyes Black Dragon 真紅眼の黒竜 Reddoaizu Burakku Doragon)
A weaker, darker counterpart to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes was once Dinosaur Ryuzaki's rarest card, until he lost it to Jonouchi during the early rounds of the Duelist Kingdom contest. Red-Eyes would go onto become one of Jonouchi's signature cards throughout the Duelist Kingdom arc; temporarily lost to him during Battle City. In the anime, he reclaimed it in time for the DOMA Filler Arcnote Despite its generally average stats, Red-Eyes is a versatile card, that can be combo'd with others to create more powerful creatures, like the Black Skull Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, to name only two.
It also had a prominent showing during Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where it was the signature card of Fubuki Tenjouin/Atticus Rhodes when he was possessed by Darkness/Nightshroud, highlighted by its new upgraded forms; Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Atticus initially refused to use it, asociating it with Nightshroud, but eventually modified the deck and accepted Red-Eyes as his partner.
- Atomic Superpower: Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon attacks with a fusion blast.
- Bond Creature: At the very least Jonouchi/Joey and his Red-Eyes for sure. Red-Eyes getting hurt in the Jonouchi/Joey's duel against Yugi actually caused Jonouchi/Joey physical pain. And Jonouchi/Joey started to regained consciousness after his match with Marik when Yugi summoned his Red-Eyes.
- Breath Weapon: Prefers dark-aligned Fireballs to contrast Blue-Eyes' lightning/light attacks.
- Dark Is Evil: Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and Darkness Metal Dragon are exclusively used by Nightshroud.
- Dark Is Not Evil: It's a damned creepy card, but it's used by one of the heroes throughout. Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, and especially Black Skull Dragon are even scarier.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In the manga, there's a colored splash panel of the Monster World arc, in which the party characters seem to be battling a dragon that looks suspiciously like the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Contrary to Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes, the Red-Eyes is usually not enough to net Joey a win by itself; he has to find ways to empower it via Dragon Nails, Metalmorph, a Fusion Dance, or some other effect to grant it a new form.
- Expy: Of Bahamut from Final Fantasy. This is especially apparent as Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon's attack in the Japanese version is called Dark Megaflare.
- Finishing Move: While some duelists, like Kaiba and the first Ghoul have been able to ignore it, the appearance of Jonouhci's Red-Eyes or worse yet, one of its alternate forms, generally signals that his opponent is about to be well and truly screwed. Even though Kozuka destroyed it, it crippled his strategy.
- Foil: To the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, as their names reflect. The two have several parallel support cards too, such as "Paladin of White Dragon" and "Knight of Dark Dragon".
- Fusion Dance: Can perform one with Daemon's Summon/Summoned Skull (Black Skull Dragon) or Meteor Dragon (Meteor Black Dragon). Both are very powerful (3200/2500 and 3500/3000 to be precise). Later in the DOMA Filler Arc, it combines with the Aura Armor to fuse with Jonouchi himself, creating Lord of the Red (2400/2000), which can destroy every monster on the field, as soon as two magic cards are played.
- Magikarp Power: As the
Japanese-only first anime movie said, the Blue-Eyes has more raw power (compare 3000 attack points to Red Eyes with 2400), but Red-Eyes has many, many evolved forms that give it higher versatility.note - Meaningful Name: It's a black dragon with red eyes. Go figure.
- Mechanical Monster: Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, a huge mechanical dragon that attacks with a fusion blast. Jonouchi first used it against Bandit Keith, by stealing Keith's Metalmorph card; he later added Metalmorph to his own deck, using the Black Metal Dragon during the DOMA Filler Arc.
- Our Demons Are Different: As Black Skull Dragon, a Fiend/Dragon combo with 3200 ATK points.
- Power Equals Rarity: Played with. In-show it's said to be ultra-rare, and it is certainly treated like an incredibly powerful card, despite its average stats. However, its ability to combine with other cards makes it much more useful than it would be otherwise, hence the rarity.
- Powered Armor: Its Lord of the Red form is a suit of dragon-themed mechanical armor over a human host.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Well, yeah, it's right there in the name. It's not the most immediately dangerous card in the game, but has enough support cards to make it a credible threat.
- The Rival: Is often treated as Blue-Eyes' rival by the fandom. Given the fact that the Solid Vision hologram roars in triumph when Yugi uses it to take down one of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes, this may well be justified.
- Robot Me: Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, a robotic version of the monster that is created by equipping it with Metalmorph.
- Weak, but Skilled: Compared to it's lighter blue eyed counterpart, it's stats are rather inferior. However, Red-Eyes is capable of many powerful combos, meaning it comes back around as long as it's user has the right cards in their hand at the time. This also applies to most Red-Eyes monsters, as they usually have special effects, while Blue-Eyes usually just focus on brute strength.
Flame Swordsman
Flame Swordsman (Flame Swordsman 炎の剣士 Honō no Kenshi)
- Awesome, but Impractical: After the Duelist Kingdom arc ends in the manga and the new "Expert Rules" take effect, Flame Swordsman is Put on a Bus due to being a five-star monster with low stats and no effect, and only reappears in a major role during the anime's Virtual Nightmare Filler Arc as Jonouchi's Deck Master, and the DOMA Filler where Joey uses a retrained version known as Blue Flame Swordsman that automatically and freely summons a regular Flame Swordsman when destroyed. He sure does look awesome though.
- Bash Brothers: With the Dark Magician during the Duelist Kingdom arc, they're about as close as Yugi and Jonouchi. You could make a case for Flame Swordsman and Blue Flame Swordsman as well.
- BFS: Carries a sword that's almost as big as he is.
- Cool Helmet: Wears a large spiked helmet.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a swordsman with a Flaming Sword. Blue Flame Swordsman is the same guy, colored blue.
- Flaming Sword: How did you not get that from the name?
- Fusion Dance: Is a fusion card in the regular game (between Flame Manipulator and Masaki-The Legendary Swordsman), and can fuse himself with Dark Magician to create Black Flare Knight, a Magic Knight with only 2200 attack, but a variety of interesting effects.
- Magic Knight: Is one himself, and can become a stronger one by fusing with Dark Magician, creating Dark Flare Knight.
- Out of Focus: Despite being one of the more iconic monsters in the early eras, Flame Swordsman hardly ever gets any spotlight unlike any of Jonouchi's other ace monsters like Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Gearfried The Iron Knight. Probably justified given by that point the monster would have been vastly outclassed by Joey's other aces.
- Palette Swap: Blue Flame Swordsman, who summons a regular Flame Swordsman to the field when it's destroyed.
- Playing with Fire: This should surprise no one. One of the creatures used to make him is actually called "Flame Manipulator."
- Power Glows: Turns bright gold while under the influence of the Burning Soul Sword Magic Card.
- Power-Up: Salamandra can actually be played on any FIRE monster, but you'd never know that from how Jonouchi uses it. Same goes for Burning Soul Sword.
- Status Buff: His Deck Master ability in anime filler allows him to decrease his own ATK in order to increase the ATK of another Warrior-type monster by the same amount. This was later recreated for Blue Flame Swordsman in the card game.
- Sword and Sorcerer: Often plays the "Sword" to Yugi's Dark Magician's "Sorcerer".
- Technicolour Fire: Flame Swordsman's flames are the same orange color as his outfit. Blue Flame Swordsman's are, unsurprisingly, Blue.
Egyptian God Cards
Egyptian God Cards
Egyptian God Cards (Three Legendary Gods 三幻神 Sangenshin)
During Battle City, Yugi/Dark Yugi wielded Slifer, Seto Kaiba held Obelisk, and Marik Ishtar held the Winged Dragon of Ra. Because of the tournament's ante rule, after winning Yugi obtained all three God Cards, using them in Pyramid of Light and later arcs.
- Adaptational Wimp:
- Downplayed for Ra in the anime. The manga version of Ra is even more broken. In the anime, Marik needed to save Ra from Obelisk's infinite attack points ability via the Quick-Play Spell Card Class System. In the manga, Ra outright no-sold it, because of being higher in the hierarchy of Egyptian Gods.
- The legal version of Ra in the actual card game is also by far the weakest Egyptian God, thanks to its starting ATK/DEF being 0 instead of the total stats of its sacrifices (making its "pay LP until you have 100 left" mandatory if you want to use it for any attacking or defending), and its immunity to Spells and Traps being removed. A Balance Buff was later made by releasing its Sphere Mode and Phoenix Mode as separate cards, also various Spell/Trap cards meant to support him which supply the cut effects.
- Ambiguous Gender: Despite all three lacking feminine traits, their combined form is Holactie the Creator of Light, a female monster god created by the Pharaoh. Even stranger is that both Ra and Osiris/Slifer were named after male gods.
- Berserk Button: They will not tolerate any duelists who attempts to summon a counterfeit version of the card and will deliver a Bolt of Divine Retribution to anyone who do so.
- Big Damn Heroes: They have a habit of being summoned when their duelist is in trouble, bar the few times where there was a duel of the gods.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Don't try to use a God Card unless you're qualified to use them via Ancient Egyptian heritage, and definitely don't try to use a counterfeit version of a God Card. They tend to response by invoking this trope on the perpetrator.
- Boring Yet Practical: As mentioned under The Brute, Obelisk the Tormentor doesn't have any particularly flashy effects to disrupt the opponent's plays and has no gimmick to manipulate its own states. But in practice, this means it's still a 4000/4000 point monster with no drawbacks, investment of resources, or strategy required to get the most out of it; you just summon it and it hits hard, and you don't need to worry about maintaining hand size or paying Life Points to use it.
- Breath Weapon: "Blaze Cannon" for Ra and "Thunder Force" for Slifer.
- The Brute/The Big Guy: While Ra and Slifer have various special abilities and gimmicks to their Attack and Defense scores that require strategy to make worknote , Obelisk's effect is to automatically inflict 4000 damage for two tributes (in the anime, this is a One-Hit KO), and his Attack and Defense are set at 4000. Essentially, he's just a giant beatstick.
- Cast from Hit Points: Ra lets the user give up Life Points to empower it in different ways.
- Character Tiers: Invoked in-universe within themselves - Slifer and Obelisk comprise the lower tier, while Ra is on top.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Ra is yellow, Slifer is red, Obelisk is blue.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Depending on which episodes you watch, the God Cards are either completely immune to card effects, or card effects only work on them for a single turn. Either way, once they hit the field the only way to get rid of them is to defeat them in a straight-up battle. This is of course to stop them from being easily stopped with card effects.
- To be specific (mainly for their appearence in manga): They're unaffected by monster and Trap effects, except for monsters with same/higher Hierarchy for the former and magical Traps (like Spellbinding Circle) for the latter (in the manga, attacks and effects are divided into physical and magical a la RPG). Spell card effects that removes them from the field (destroy, banish, etc) or changes their control doesn't work either. They also cannot be Tributed by opponent. Any effect they aren't immune to only last for a turn to them. The opponent also cannot equip cards to them. Pretty much the only way to not resort to battle is to use their own effects against them or negate their effects (though this latter one varies): the former flaw Ishizu tried to exploit with a Trap that would do just that, before Kaiba decided not to do that.
- The anime veers more on Strong as They Need to Be category. Their effects mostly work the same, but due to anime trying to expand the duels and/or extend the God cards faceoff, sometimes there are inconsistent moments with their established effects like The Gods being banished by Pyramid of Light and Ra being destroyed by Ragnarok despite Obelisk being established as immune to Mirror Force before, Obelisk being unable to destroy Slifer with its effect yet Slifer destroyed Ra (which has no Hierarchy immunity in anime) moment with its effect, Obelisk being negated by Ground Erosion where in Dark Side of Dimensions (manga continuity) Obelisk no-sold Cubic Mandala.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Ra is made out to be all but unstoppable, making Dark Yugi's defeat of it this.
- The Dog Bites Back: In GX, Franz successfully uses a copy of Ra and binds it to his will thanks to a card specifically designed to control it, something that causes Ra a lot of pain. When Jaden turns Ra's effects against it to remove it from Franz's field, Ra willingly lets itself be summoned to Jaden's field, in spite of his lack of Egyptian heritage or ability to read the Hieratic Text, so it can get back at Franz.
- Face Framed in Shadow: While its card was seen regularly, before Dark Marik summoned it against Mai, Ra was always shown shadowed or only seen from a distance to obscure the details of its appearance. The fake one was covered in light and flame.
- Final Boss: Defeating Ra becomes an integral part of defeating Dark Marik in his Shadow Games, and taking it down ultimately results in his death and Dark Yugi's victory.
- Fusion Dance: Whenever Dark Marik feeds his life points into Ra, his body, lacking one hand to keep holding his cards and Duel Disk, and with a gaping hole where his eye ought to be, fuses with Ra, leaking black smoke. This is later turned against him, when losing Ra costs him control of his body to the real Marik.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: This tends to be one of the best ways to take them down. Slifer's second mouth is a mandatory effect, which both Yami Yugi and Yugi (only in anime) take advantage of, and Ishizu's plan to defeat Obelisk involved merging Blast Held by a Tribute into it. In a similar manner, Ra's ability to merge with the player was exploited to free the original Marik from Yami Marik.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Designed to be this. However, due to the fact that the god cards have
Character Tiers within themselves, Obelisk and Slifer are more like Infinity-1 Swords to Ra's Infinity +1 Sword. - Large and in Charge: They are massive cards; Obelisk fills the testing room when Kaiba first summons him, and when Dark Yugi summons Slifer it coils around the airship the duel is taking place on.
- Mechanical Monster: Ra is a huge robotic-looking dragon.
- Megaton Punch: Unlike Ra and Slifer, Obelisk prefers attacking with his building sized fist.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Each time that Ra gains a new power it helps Dark Marik win a Shadow Game he otherwise could not. It is mentioned that it has three powers early on, but not what they are.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ra is an Ancient Egyptian robotic griffon-dragon that turns into a phoenix.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Accompanies their summonings in the dub.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Only those chosen by the Millennium Items can control the Gods. Others who try to use them find them useless at best, and suffer the wrath of the Gods at worst. In the anime, the power of the Seal of Orichalcos can somewhat mitigate this, allowing Gurimo to control Obelisk, but even then he was suffering from constant dizziness as long as Obelisk was on the field. In GX, Mound of the Bound Creator is able to let Franz bind a Ra copy and prevent it from lashing out against him, though this is mostly because the Mound was specifically designed to restrain a God Card.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Ra is a mechanical griffon, who becomes a phoenix.
- Redemption Demotion: Downplayed with Slifer. It becomes Yugi's strongest monster for most of the Battle City Tournament after he wins it, but it doesn't reach the same level of power as when Marik had it. Justified, as Slifer was initially used in a deck that was designed around it before Yugi won it.
- The Phoenix: Ra's alternate form. It turns into flames, and destroys everything on the field.
- Physical God: All of them are gods in Duel Monster form.
- Purposely Overpowered: Specifically designed to be the strongest cards in the game.
- Summon Magic: In the Shadow RPG, Pharaoh Atem needs to give up a large amount of ba in his ba gauge to summon them.
- Supernormal Bindings: The Field Spell Card Mound of the Bound Creator acts as this for Ra, as Franz used it to restrain Ra and be able to use its power without suffering its wrath for not being chosen by it.
- Superpower Lottery: While all three God Cards have powerful abilities, neither Slifer nor Obelisk can hold a candle to Ra; for that matter, after 20 years of a constantly evolving meta-game, no card is quite so complex as Ra, with only Supreme King Z-ARC (in the anime) coming anywhere close. Presumably, it's real-life card was split into three different forms because approximating all of its effects on one card would make the text too small to read (and the real life cards still don't include all of Ra's effects, until more Spell/Trap cards each containing parts of Ra's missing anime and manga effects are released to support him). It's powers are as follows:
- When Summoned without reciting the chant first, Ra appears in Sphere Mode (with 0 ATK and DEF in the TCG/OCG). It cannot attack or be attacked, and the first duelist to recite the chant to unlock it in Battle Mode will take control of it.
- In Battle Mode, Ra's ATK and DEF is equal to the combined ATK and DEF of the three monsters Tributed to summon it. If summoned without Tribute, its ATK is 0.
- A duelist can Tribute a monster on either player's turn to increase Ra's ATK and DEF by that monster's ATK and DEF.
- When Special Summoned from the Graveyard, a duelist can pay Life Points on either player's turn, reducing their own Life Points to 1 to increase Ra's ATK by the amount paid. If this is done, Ra is treated as a Fusion Monster fused from Ra and its controller, in which when De-Fusion targets Ra, the controller gains LP equal to Ra's ATK, then Ra's ATK and DEF are reduced to 0.
- When Special Summoned from the Graveyard, Ra can transform into Phoenix Mode. In Phoenix Mode, Ra is immune to destruction by battle or card effects, can force an opponent's monster to attack it, and the user can pay 1000 Life Points to destroy one monster on the field, ignoring any kinds of protection that monster have.
- This is also all in addition to the standard God Card effects of needing three Tributes to Tribute Summon, if Special Summoned from the Graveyard Ra goes back to the Graveyard at the end of the turn, and it has the Contractual Boss Immunity listed above.
- When Special Summoned from the Graveyard, it can also attack regardless of the condition and its attacks cannot be negated; in the manga, the Battle City finals introduced a rule that prevented Special Summoned monsters from attacking in the turn they were summoned.
- Adapted Out from the manga, Ra has higher hierarchy than Obelisk and Slifer, which allows it to No-Sell their attacks and reduce the battle damage to 0.
- Top God: Ra is based on the chief of the Egyptian gods and is both the strongest of the group and the strongest single card in the game.
- The Worf Effect:
- In the manga, Obelisk's Soul Energy MAX effect, which made Obelisk's ATK infinity, served to cement Ra's position as the Top God in which Ra no-sold the attack, being higher in the hierarchy of Egyptian Gods.
- Interesting enough, after Atem got his hands on them, this trope ended up being applied to every single one of the Egyptian God Cards, though Obelisk had it in a lesser extent. Almost every attempts to summon Slifer and Ra ended up in failure in one way or another. Obelisk, on the other hand, ended up being Atem's most used God card, being the one that got most of the focus against Dark Marik (yet it still suffered a Worf Effect against Ra as mentioned above), winning against 2 primary villain on stories set after Battle City, and being the first God card to be summoned in the Ceremonial Duel against Yugi, and in the manga, the only one summoned properly.
- In the Pyramid of Light movie, Kaiba forces Yugi to Summon all of them early on in their duel, and then uses the epynomous Trap Card to banish them with ridiculous ease.
- Obelisk, and quite possibly all three of them during the Ceremonial Duel. By the time of the Ceremonial Duel, Yugi figured out that the Egyptian God Cards simply requires too much sacrifice to be used together which is what leads into the Monster Reborn God card strategy that is overly used by the end of Battle City (and that unlike in the real game, in manga, the original source, monsters cannot attack the turn they are Special Summoned, and all Gods effects count as attack, which means Special Summoned Gods can neither attack nor use its effects with the exception of Ra, making Special Summon effects wasted on them unless used on defense like Atem attempted to). In the anime, this turns out to be unfounded since Atem ended up summoning all 3 of them. In the manga this is proven true, as Atem ended up only summoning Obelisk. Regardless of continuity, Yugi proceed to dismantle the god cards (via using Slifer's "second mouth" ability against them through the Magnet Warriors ability to fuse into Valkyrion, who can subsequently defuse back, paired with a spell related to the Magnet Warriors), while shutting down the Monster Reborn God card strategy out of the game.
The Seal of Orichalcos
The Seal of Orichalcos
The Seal of Orichalcos (Barrier of Oreichalcos オレイカルコスの結界 Oreikarukosu no Kekkai)
- As Long as There Is Evil: Dartz stated that the Great Leviathan, and by extension the Seal, will exist as long as there is evil within mankind, and the Seal is only able to take the souls of the impure, as seen when Raphael was spared because all the darkness in his heart at the time was dissipated. The only reason the Seal got to him was because Dartz made him filled with anger and despair by showing him his family's deaths.
- Bilingual Bonus: The text around the seal is Enochian. It spells out "Oreichalcos".
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Anyone can become a victim of the Seal, even those who serve it loyally. No wonder Dartz has such a broken deck.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the anime-only Doma arc. Dartz is the main threat, but he was corrupted by the Orichalcos.
- Green Rocks: The users carry these, "Orichalcos stones".
- Instant Runes: Whenever the card is played, a massive rune of a six-pointed star surrounded by Enochian. The Seal appears on the forehead of the duelist who played it and any monster they control.
- Leitmotif: A very dramatic one as soon as the card is played.
- Mark of the Beast: What the Orichalchos and it's corresponding artifacts boil down to, they are the conceptually crystallized essence of their malevolent god beast’s foul power often appearing as nothing more than just shiny rocks and a magic circle. Its influence can twist anybody's demeanor turning a pure heart into a dark one by instilling and feeding off of negative intent, a few of Domino cities resident police bear the mark in a literal manner while under its influence.
- Mind Rape/Painful Transformation: Dark Magician and Guardian Eatos both are in severe agony when they are summoned with this card in play, implying that monsters with sufficient willpower will undergo mental stress as the Seal of Orichalcos takes over them.
- Purposely Overpowered: Let's count the ways: Can't be destroyed by anything, gives a 500 ATK boost to all of the user's monsters, lets them use their Spell and Trap zones to summon monsters while protecting them from attack until the front row is empty, and takes the soul of whoever loses the duel. And if that wasn't overpowered enough, Dartz has even more powerful versions of the Seal.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Anyone who uses the Orichalcos gains a red tint to their eyes. Except for Dartz, who is so corrupted one of his eyes is Orichalcos green.
- Spell My Name With An S: Is spelled "Oreichalcos" on the Japanese version of the card, and that is what the Enochian cipher spells out as well. Could overlap with Punny Name, since the Orichalcos is literally a magical ore.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Does the Just The Soul variant to anyone who loses while it's in play. Funnily enough, the pre-nerf real-life version of the card keeps the effect in its texts (although good luck figuring out how to actually resolve that effect).
The Legendary Dragons
The Legendary Dragons
The Legendary Dragons (Legendary Dragon 伝説の竜 Densetsu no Ryū)
- Equippable Ally: Hermos becomes an Equip card when combined with another monster.
- Fusion Dance: Their cards work by combining with other cards. Timaeus combines with monsters to make a monster, Critias combines with Trap Cards to make a monster, and Hermos combines with monsters to make an Equip Spellnote . In their true forms, the three can combine with each other to form Timaeus the Knight of Destiny.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Their true forms.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: As the Pharaoh discovers, attempting to power them up with the Orichalcos breaks the fusion and removes the dragon from play. This makes sense, as they are opposing forces. On the other hand, he can use two of the dragons at once with no problems.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: They appear in their users' decks after being unsealed (In two cases and ironically NOT Yugi's, this happened in the middle of a duel) and have wildly different effects depending on how they are used. On the other hand, this means there is no way to research their effects beforehand, and using them effectively is a matter of guesswork, leading to some entertaining, yet flawed (though still effective) hijinks the first time Joey used one.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Only Yugi and the Pharaoh, Kaiba, and Joey were able to unseal the dragons, and only they can use them. Yugi doesn't get the chance to, it is implied that Mai tried and failed to use Hermos in an offscreen duel, and the Pharaoh turns out to be able to use all of them. When the Pharaoh gave into temptation and played the Seal of Orichalcos, Timaeus disappeared, and continued to do so every time he tried to play it until he truly repented.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They used to be humans.
- Theme Naming: The three are named after Plato's dialogues concerning Atlantis.
